Generally, most debriders are made of a single piece of surgical metal that can be sterilized repeatedly between surgeries. The single piece of metal includes multiple moving parts inside that may be made of different materials. The debrider after use is placed into a sterilization device such as an autoclave and rapidly heated, thereby, sterilizing the device. Due to the high temperatures used in the autoclave, to sterilize the debrider, the debrider either will rest for an extended period of time to cool, or the debrider can be placed in a cooling fluid such as water to cool the debrider. This rapid heating and then cooling causes the parts made of different materials to expand and contract at different rates which may cause the parts to prematurely wear, become misaligned, increase tolerances between parts, decrease tolerances between parts, or a combination thereof. Additionally, the rapid cycling of the debrider from hot to cold may cause the drive systems and/or drive components to be less reliable than a new debrider. Thus, what is needed is a debrider that can be rapidly sterilized between uses without causing premature failure and/or reliability issues with components of the debrider.
Currently, single piece debriders are only used with bipolar energy or no energy. This is due to the single piece assembly of the debriders causing a risk of shock for a user when the debrider is used with a monopolar energy source. Thus, to eliminate the risk of shock debriders are not available with monopolor energy.
Additionally, most debriders include interchangeable tips that are added and removed from the debrider depending on the particular need for a particular procedure. The interchangeable tips are removed from sterile packaging and inserted into the single piece surgical instrument after the surgical instrument is sterilized. After a procedure is performed the interchangeable tip is removed and discarded while the debrider is sterilized. The componentry of the surgical instrument and the interchangeable tip need a high degree of alignment so that the tip does not slip or stop working during use. Additionally, if tolerances in the surgical instrument change it may become increasingly difficult to insert the interchangeable tip into the surgical instrument. Alternatively, if the tolerances become too large the surgical instrument may not adequately supply power to the interchangeable tip during a procedure and/or the surgical instrument may not adequately stabilize the interchangeable tip.
Examples of some known debriders and cutting instruments that are used may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,230,704; 5,560,373; 5,810,809; 6,053,923; 6,246,638; 6,716,215; 6,979,332; 7,179,255; and 7,442,191 all of which are incorporated by reference herein for all purposes. Examples of some known surgical devices including disposable parts may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,955,284; 5,230,704; 5,560,373; and 5,849,023 all of which are incorporated by reference herein for all purposes. It would be attractive to have a surgical instrument that is reusable without subjecting all of the moving parts to thermal cycling. It would be attractive to have a device that can use bipolar energy, monopolar energy, or no energy during surgery. It would be attractive to have a surgical instrument where the reusable portion is substantially free of contact with materials removed from a patient and/or added to a patient during surgery.